On Thursday, January 4 the planning committee refused permission for an outline planning application from Amanda Jones and Hollins Strategic Land for the new housing estate bordered by Kislingbury Road and Banbury Lane in Rothersthorpe.

Planning committee chairman, councillor Rebecca Breese said: “South Northamptonshire has stood up to the challenge presented by the national housing shortage and we can show the district will be fulfilling its obligations for more than a decade.

“Our local planning policies are clear in that we can only allow house building to take place where there is infrastructure to support it, not only to ensure developments are sustainable, but also to protect the rural character of our villages.

“We had one letter supporting this proposal, and two neutral comments, but 16 local people objected for a variety of reasons, some citing planning policies, others had concerns about traffic and the safety of pedestrians and cyclists as well as flooding and drainage.”

The proposals were outside the confines of Rothersthorpe and in the open countryside where development can only take place in exceptional circumstances.

South Northamptonshire Council can currently show it has sufficient new homes in the planning pipeline to satisfy its housing needs for just over 10 years.

The proposal was also contrary to policies within the South Northamptonshire Local Plan and West Northamptonshire Joint Core Strategy, which seek to concentrate house building in Brackley and Towcester while protecting the intrinsic character of the countryside and rural areas.

In addition the proposal would also have had a harmful impact on The Rothersthorpe Conservation Area, committee members say.

Northampton General Hospital is working to arrange temporary placements in care homes for patients who are medically fit for discharge, but who are waiting for care in their own home or placement in a residential or nursing home.

The hospital is having to take this measure as it responds to extreme winter pressures.

Currently, it has more people than usual coming to A&E for care and treatment, several of which need admitting onto a ward.

Admitting patients onto ward areas in a timely manner has become difficult as many people on wards are waiting to move out to receive further care in residential and nursing homes or in their own house.

Once moved, patients will become the responsibility of the care home and will retain their right to choose a placement or care package of their while in temporary care.

Dr Sonia Swart, the chief executive officer at Northampton General Hospital, said: "We don’t as yet know how well this system will work or how may placements will be made available but we do know that to ensure that we can provide safe care for all the patients who need it we will need to double the number of patients with complex needs who are able to leave the hospital each day.

"And we also know that the services they require after these temporary placements will need to be increased as well.

"This measure will be funded from NHS additional winter funding announced in the government’s 2017/2018 budget."

In accordance with NHS England recommendations, NGH has reviewed its position regarding scheduled operations and procedures for the rest of the month.

Routine theatre operations scheduled for January will be cancelled with the exception of patients receiving treatment on the 52-week cancer pathway. Emergency life-threatening, and urgent cancer operation operations and procedures will go ahead.

The majority of outpatients and day case procedures and appointments will go ahead.

The hospital says it "will give as much notice as possible to those patients whose appointments are being cancelled" and, in some cases, will run clinics and theatres outside working hours (including weekends).

As well as reducing pressure on bed capacity, the cancellations will allow the hospital to deploy theatre staff to support the emergency department and wards.

Patients with a scheduled appointment should attend as requested if we haven't been in touch to cancel.

"As a result of sustained extreme pressures on our emergency department and our bed capacity, we have decided to implement a number of measures to help us to continue our focus on the safe care of our most seriously unwell patients," said Dr Swart.

"Our staff are doing an amazing job as they continue to prioritise care and as they continue to treat patients with dignity despite the obvious pressures on space.

"However, we have increasing concerns relating to the fact that patients are waiting too long and the numbers of patients requiring our help remains very high.

"We also want to be able to ensure that ambulances can continue to be offloaded quickly so that patients who need ambulances in the community can access them for life threatening conditions.

"We have been planning for a difficult time this winter and those plans have all been put in place but the measures have not been sufficient and the pressures this winter are more extreme than in other years.

"We are admitting more older and more unwell patients who are needing to spend more time in hospital than in previous years and we are having more difficulty finding appropriate care for them once they no longer need an acute hospital bed."

A 23-year-old Northampton man was given a suspended sentence after being found guilty of trying to persuade two 14-year-old girls on Facebook to have sex with him.

Daniel Blair was handed a nine-month suspended sentence at Northampton Crown Court and was found guilty of trying to incite intercourse with a child, being in possession of indecent material and extreme pornographic images on his laptop and phone, and of distributing one extreme pornographic image.

Over the course of one week in November 2016, Blair had been interacting with two 14-year-old girls on Facebook after they contacted him, and the court was told he was aware of the girls' age.

During the conversations, the court heard, Blair made it clear he wanted to have sex with them and was trying to arrange a meeting for later in the week.

The prosecution told the court of the effect on one of the victims. She had felt anxiety, stress, depression and had been feeling down.

The ordeal had affected her social activities with her friends, and she had attempted to take her own life.

Sentencing, Judge Lucking said that despite no previous convictions, due to the impact on the young victim the case had crossed the threshold of a custodial sentence.

However, the sentence was suspended as Blair was considered to have a realistic prospect of rehabilitation because he was young and had made it clear he was willing to work with any relevant authorities to help with his behaviour.

His defence barrister told Judge Lucking his client was of previous good character, accepted what he did was "completely wrong and incorrect" and that he apologised to the victims in this case.

Blair was given five months and eight months for his other offences, but they are to run concurrently with his nine months sentence. He received a 25 per cent credit for his guilty plea.

He was put on a sex offender programme and handed a sexual harm prevention order.

As part of the conditions of the order, Blair cannot delete his browser history and if asked by the police is obliged to provide his ISP, IP address, username and passwords to any delegated representative.

He can’t install anything that can be used to mask browsing or an anonymous browser such as a TOR browser (which can be used to access the dark web).

He can’t download still or moving images, can’t use a private browsing mode, can’t use or install a peer to peer file sharing software, and can’t dispose of digital devices.

He is unable to contact or speak to any person under 18 unless the child’s parents or guardian(s) are present and they are made aware of the defendant’s criminal convictions.

The order is in place for 10 years and should it be broken, Blair would face a five-year prison sentence.

The A43 Southbound by the Round Spinney Industrial Estate is experiencing increasing delays of around 29 minutes and the average speed is five mph, according to the AA.

The traffic jam was first reported at 7.30am.

A firefighter is warning about the dangers of heatable wheatbags after his eight-year-old son went to bed with one which caught fire.

Richie Burton purchased three cute animal-shaped wheatbags for each of his children this Christmas – blissfully unaware of the drama that would unfold on Boxing Day evening.

After heating up the Topshop product in the microwave as per the instructions, Richie placed the novelty ‘dog’ under his son’s duvet at bedtime.

But soon afterwards the youngster alerted him to the fact “something wasn’t right”... and moments after Richie had grabbed the bag he spotted a flame coming out of it.

“I’ve been a firefighter for 14 years. And I’ve never had anything like this,” he said.

“I’ve got three kids at home. They all got one of these for Christmas. They’ve got hot water bottles but they get cold very quickly, so I picked up two from New Look which appear to have plastic beads that heat up and were fine, and the third from Topshop in Bedford (Bedfordshire).

“This one was different in that it was wheat-filled. It was put in the microwave on Boxing Day at 8pm. The instruction said heat for 45 seconds and it smelt hot. I knew it would smell because of the wheat, so I didn’t think much of it.

“I gave it to my boy who is 8. He was in bed and he would normally have his hot water bottle at night.

“He had it under his duvet. It was lucky he was awake. It was him who said ‘it doesn’t smell right’. It if had been a three-year-old tucked under the blanket... it doesn’t bear thinking about.”

Richie, who lives in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, said: “What I had thought was steam was actually smoke. It was a 20 second dash to the kitchen and a flame came out of it. I put it in the sink and drenched it. I opened the velcro and the pack that was stitched in there had its wheat pour out.

“Inside there was a label which you wouldn’t see which said every third time you heat it up put a cup of water in there too to rehydrate the wheat.”

He pointed out: “This was the first use, not the third time. And according to the outside instructions we did everything right.

“It’s not the end of the world for us, it’s more the fact that quite a lot of people might have got these for Christmas.”

A spokesman for Topshop said: “We are in direct contact with the customer on this matter.”

Wheatbags - commonly used to treat aching muscles and arthritis – have in recent years also been sold in the shape of cartoon characters and teddy bears to appeal to children.

Back in 2014, warnings about the dangers of using microwaveable wheat bags were issued after a pensioner became the first person to die when one set fire to the bed she was sleeping in.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), said at the time: “To use microwaveable wheat bags safely, follow the instructions and pay particular attention to the wattage of the microwave, as the higher the wattage, the quicker the wheat bag will heat up, so this may vary the length of time it needs to be in the microwave for.

“Extra care should be taken by parents if these products are used by children. If the wheat bag doesn’t carry any instructions, be very wary about using it.”

Police are appealing for witnesses following a burglary at a restaurant in Montagu Street, Kettering.

The break-in happened sometime between 1.30am and 11am on Friday, January 5, when the offenders forced entry to a door at the side of the premises and stole cash.

Witnesses, or anyone with information about the burglary, is asked to call Northamptonshire Police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

Burglars stole cash and luxury items after breaking into a house in Barton Seagrave.

The offenders broke in through a window at the side of the house in Polwell Lane at some point between 6pm on Christmas Day and 5pm on Thursday, January 4.

They stole a safe, cash, two Rolex watches and two Chanel handbags.

Witnesses, or anyone with information about the stolen property, are asked to call Northamptonshire Police on 101 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

The council says the new model has been designed to better suit the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and/ or disabilities and reflects feedback received from families as part of the recent public consultation.

The short breaks contracts, which provide day, evening, overnight and weekend respite breaks for children with complex needs, is jointly funded by Northamptonshire County Council and both Nene and Corby Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), and delivered by Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust.

The current contracts are due to come to an end in July and so the new model would come into effect after a tender process.

County council cabinet member for public protection and education councillor André Gonzalez de Savage said: “We had a huge number of responses to our public consultation, which demonstrates how important short breaks are to families.

“As the current contracts come to an end later this year, we have taken the opportunity to ask families and providers what they would like from the service going forwards and have taken their feedback into account when designing the proposed new model for short breaks.

“I hope families will agree that the new services will address the issues they raised about consistency of services, the gaps in provision across the county and the need for consistently trained staff, while also enabling children with the most complex needs to access and enjoy activities in specialised and mainstream environments.”

The county council will continue to fund short breaks to the sum of £2.1m per year, with some additional funding from Nene and Corby Clinical Commissioning Groups.

Cabinet will meet to discuss the proposed new service model next Tuesday.

A man suffered cuts and bruises after being chased and attacked by a group in the car park of a Corby pub.

Police are appealing for witnesses to the assault which took place outside the New Inn in Lloyds Road, Corby, in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

The assault happened between 2.45am and 2.55 am in the pub car park.

A police spokesman said: “After the victim, a man in his 20s, had left the pub, he was attacked from behind by a group of males and chased across the car park.

“He tripped and fell and was further assaulted by the group, being kicked several times.

“He sustained cuts to his head and bruising which required hospital treatment.

“Officers are appealing for anyone who may have witnessed the assault or have any information about who was involved to contact them.”

Anyone with information about the attack is asked to call Northamptonshire Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

Northamptonshire Fire were first called at 10:27am to the blaze at the Esso garage on Wellingborough Road and had one crew at the scene. They left shortly after 11am.

Pictures show the people carrier car appears to have caught ablaze while driving away from the garage.

Wellingborough Road is not closed but the petrol station has been coned off.

The victim was pushed off his Carrera bicycle (pictured) while riding it along Meltham Close, near the Weston Favell shopping centre, and, as he was on the floor, he was approached by two more men who held a knife to him.

The three men then took the bike and made off in the direction of Lings at some time between 8.45pm and 9.15pm on Saturday, January 6.

All three men were in their late teens.

One of the men is described as black, with a muscled build and short black hair in a high top style. He was wearing a black jacket and black trousers, and had a black face-covering obscuring the bottom half of his face.

The second offender was white, about 6ft 1in, with a skinny build. He was wearing dark trousers and jacket with the hood up, and a black balaclava.

The third man was black, about 5ft 5in, with a skinny build and wearing black trousers, a black jacket, and a black balaclava.

Witnesses, or anyone with information, are asked to call Northamptonshire Police on 101 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

As part of a modernisation and investment programme, a brand new daily Post Office will open next month at in a Northamptonshire village, which will open for 76 hour a week.

The new branch - Spratton Village Stores in Brixworth Road, Spratton - will open it's doors on Tuesday, 6 February at 1pm, and will offer customers a wide range of Post Office services, from posting letters and parcels to collecting and returning online shopping items.

Customers will also be able to take advantage of a wide range of banking services including cash withdrawals and balance inquiries for customers of all the main UK banks.

Mark Irvin, Post Office network operations manager said: “We want to make it as easy as possible for customers to pay their bills, withdraw cash from their bank accounts, and send and collect their mail at a time and place that suits them best.

"We know how important our services are to customers, and are confident that this brand new Post Office alongside the other branches in the area at Creaton, Brixton and Ravensthorpe, will ensure that people in the Spratton area have easy access to our services.”

The new branch aims to offer even more convenience to Post Office customers by extending the availability of Post Offices services in the area. The new branch joins Creaton, Brixton and Ravensthorpe Post Offices in bringing vital services to their local communities.

The new Post Office services will be available seven days a week throughout the store’s opening hours: Monday to Friday: 7am to 7pm; Saturday: 7.30am – 7.30pm; Sunday: 8am to 12 noon.

The incident took place at the Boston night club and bar, in College Street, on November 27 at about 1.30am.

A man was asked to leave the premises by door staff. He then became aggressive and damaged a glass panel on the door.

The man, or anyone who recognises him, is asked to call Northamptonshire Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

A wedding ring was among items stolen in a burglary in Northamptonshire.

The incident happened on Monday, January 8 in Hartwell Road, Quinton.

Between 7.45am and 2.45pm, when the offender/s managed to gain entry to the property via the back of the house.

Men and women’s jewellery were stolen including a gold wedding ring.

Witnesses, or anyone with information, should call Northamptonshire Police on 101 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

Burglars stole cash, bags and a designer watch from a Northampton home last week.

The break-in happened between 5.30am and 6.30am on Thursday, January 4, when the Rothersthorpe Road home in Far Cotton was accessed via the front door.

A moped was seen in the area at the time.

One of the stolen items, a Cath Kidston backpack, was found later on by a member of the public on Towcester Road, at the corner of Briar Hill Walk. The stolen Tommy Hilfiger watch is pictured.

Witnesses, or anyone with information, should call Northamptonshire Police on 101 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

The incident happened in West Mead Court in Standens Barn on Monday, January 8, between 6pm and 7.40pm, when two offenders forced access to the property via the front door.

They stole cash and a large silver box containing personal documents.

A spokeswoman for Northamptonshire Police said: "The offenders are described as two males with face-coverings making off in a silver/blue hatchback vehicle."

Witnesses, or anyone with information, should call Northamptonshire Police on 101 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

Northamptonshire Police have released the above images of a man linked to the theft of fuel at a petrol station.

The driver of a blue Vauxhall Corsa – believed to be using false number plates – drove onto the forecourt of the BP Garage in Rothersthorpe, M1 South, filled up with fuel and left without making payment.

The incident happened on Sunday, October 29, at about 7pm.

The man, or anyone who recognises him, is asked to call Northamptonshire Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

Officers have released CCTV images of men they wish to speak to after an elderly woman was burgled in Pierce Crescent, Warmington.

The incident took place sometime between 7.30pm and 8pm on Wednesday, January 3, when four men broke into the property by forcing entry via the front door.

They stole cash and jewellery, including a men’s Accurist wristwatch.

The first offender wore dark trousers, a two-tone light and dark jacket, dark trainers and a cap.

The second man wore dark trousers, a dark top, a cap and white trainers.

The third man wore dark bottoms, a light coloured top, gloves and a cap.

The fourth man wore light coloured trousers, a single breasted jacket, dark shoes with a flat cap and gloves.

The four men were also seen trying doors to other properties in the area before leaving in a vehicle.

The men, or anyone who recognises them, is asked to call Northamptonshire Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

Sidegate Lane in Wellingborough has been closed while agencies deal with a gas leak.

Northants Police has advised motorists to avoid the area while engineers deal with the incident.

The road closure is expected to last overnight.

Police say Ditchford Road is open, but there may be some disruption.

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid, made the announcement today (January 9, 2017).

The move came after concerns were raised by Conservative MPs in Northamptonshire following Northampton North MP Michael Ellis speaking out for the first time about the financial situation at County Hall.

Under powers granted to Mr Javid under the Local Government Act 1999, the Secretary of State can commission an independent inspection to better understand whether a council is complying with its ‘best value’ duty – a legal requirement to ensure good governance and effective management of resources.

The Secretary of State has now has appointed Max Caller CBE to complete a report. He will have a legal right to inspect and take away documents, and to access any council properties.

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid, said: “My decision to appoint an inspector is not taken lightly. I hope it sends a strong signal that robust processes are in place to investigate allegations of failures in financial management and governance in local government.”

The written statement from Mr Javid to the House was as follows:

"For some time there have been concerns about financial management and governance at Northamptonshire County Council, and in recent months a number of reports have been published, which have led me to question whether the authority is failing to comply with its best value duty. Particular reports include the external auditor’s (KPMG) “adverse” value for money opinion in relation to the 2015/16 and 2016/17 accounts, publically available budget documents, and the September 2017 Local Government Association peer review into the council’s financial planning and management.

"Having carefully considered the evidence available to me, I have today decided to exercise the powers granted to me by Parliament under the Local Government Act 1999 to appoint an inspector to carry out an inspection to better understand the authority’s compliance with its best value duty. The matters to be covered initially by the inspection will in particular relate to the authority’s corporate governance and financial management systems.

"I have asked the inspector to report findings to me by 16 March 2018, or such later date as the inspector agrees with me.

"This decision is not taken lightly. I hope it sends a strong signal that robust processes are in place to investigate allegations of failures in financial management and governance in local government.

"I hope Hon. Members will appreciate that we cannot be drawn into more detail while investigations are ongoing. Once the inspection is complete, I will carefully consider the inspection report. If it shows that the council is in breach of its best value duty I will then consider whether or not to exercise my powers of intervention under section 15 of the 1999 Act."